War is Hell
by NanoElite666
Summary: War has erupted in the Wasteland between the citizens of Haven and Spargus Cities, the Metal Head hordes, and a new army of Krimzon Guard war machines. Set one year after the events of Jak X: Combat Racing.
1. Welcome to the Wasteland

War is Hell - Welcome to the Wasteland

As the dropships sped over the desert sands, Private Jerrons sat in his seat and let his thoughts wander. Most of them were about the mission he was currently engaged in. Earlier in the day, a small Wastelander patrol had arrived at the Freedom League's desert headquarters and had requested immediate meeting with General Torn. They had come across a Metal Head nesting site that was located a good distance from the main nest. According to the Wastelanders, the nest was small and still developing, so it had light defenses compared to what the larger nest had. Light enough defenses that a small group of soldiers and a couple of demolition squads could get in and make a mess of things with relatively few casualties. So that's what was happening. Two dozen soldiers and two demolition squads had loaded into three dropships at dusk and set off for the fledgling Metal Head nest under cover of night.

As they flew, Jerrons looked around the dropship at his squadmates in their seats. Several of them were new to the League, and, like Jerrons, this would be their first operation against the Metal Heads. Their eyes darted around nervously as they tried to focus on something other than their rapidly approaching mission. The veteran members in the dropship either checked their weapons and gear for the umpteenth time or simply sat and stared deep into something that only they could see.

One such soldier sat in the seat next to Jerrons. The big man was a sergeant, and was the squad leader in command of all the soldiers in the dropship. Rekk was his name, or at least that's what everyone called him. Although he had his goggles down over his eyes and covering most of his face, Jerrons could still see some of the distinct tattoos of the Krimzon Guard on his commander's face. The young private had learned from other members of the League that Rekk had been fighting in the war against the Metal Heads as far back as to when Baron Praxis was still the ruler of Haven City. If there was anyone in the dropship right now that knew what it was like to kill Metal Heads, it was Rekk.

"Approaching destination," came the pilot's voice over the intercom. "ETA two minutes. Get ready for drop off back there."

"All right men, you know the drill," Rekk spoke up, voice booming over the dropship's engines. "We get into the nest and cover the demo squads while they rig the place to blow it sky high. Kill any and all Metal Heads you see." He let that part sit for a few seconds before continuing. "After that, we high-tail it out of there and haul our asses towards Spargus in the west. We'll meet up with our pickup a few kilometers outside the city."

"ETA one minute and closing," announced the intercom.

"I know that several of you in here have never fought the Metal Heads before. Just remember that they will die if you shoot them, so don't hesitate. Kill them before they kill you, and you'll be fine."

"ETA thirty seconds," the intercom announced one final time. Jerrons could feel the dropship decelerating. He let out a deep breath as he slid his goggles down over his eyes and readied his weapon to dash out of the dropship as soon as the back hatch opened to let its cargo out. As the hatch started to drop open, Jerrons could see that the vehicle was still moving over the desert sands beneath them. In a few seconds it slowed enough that the soldiers could maintain stable enough footing to exit and the drop ramp touched the ground.

"Okay, let's go!" Rekk shouted over the roar of the engines of the three dropships. "Move move move!" In no more than a handful of seconds, all of the Freedom League soldiers were on the ground and the dropships that had brought them in were lifting off to return to base. The troops quickly began to spread out among the sands. Jerrons dropped to one knee and started searching for targets, pointing the muzzle of his assault blaster wherever his eyes went. He didn't see any Metal Heads. All that he could see before him were the bizarre structures that composed a Metal Head nest. Jerrons wasn't the only one that noticed the lack of Metal Heads.

"Okay, Demo squads get to work," Rekk spoke up after a minute. "The rest of you men stay alert. I want eyes watching every direction for those bastards." The two six-man demolition squads quickly set about their task of rigging powerful plasmite explosive charges to everything that didn't look like a natural part of the desert. The rest of the soldiers began to patrol the area looking for Metal Heads to shoot. One of the soldiers approached Rekk.

"I don't like this one bit, Sarge," the soldier said as he approached Rekk. "It's way to quiet here."

"I know, Vinnie, I know," Rekk replied. "Even a nest as small as this should have Metal Heads in it somewhere."

"If this is a nest, then where the fuck are all the Metal Heads?" came the voice of another soldier. Rekk turned to see who had spoken so loudly.

"Keep it down over there, Zayne!" he ordered. "Are you trying to give us away?"

"Give us away to who?" Zayne questioned. "I swear, we've got to be the only ones here. There ain't a goddamned Metal Head in si-" Zayne stopped mid-sentence as the ground he was walking on crumbled beneath him and he plunged into darkness below the sands. A few seconds afterward, the rapid _crack-crack-crack_ of an assault blaster rang up the hole. It was followed by a scream, then silence.

"Shit!" Rekk swore out loud. _There's a tunnel system under the nest_, he thought to himself. "Now the whole goddamn place knows we're here!" All of a sudden, as if on cue to the sergeant's words, the loud roar of scatter guns came from the direction of one of the demolition squads. As he watched, several more holes opened in the ground in various places around the nest. Metal Heads began to climb out of them. Rekk toggled on his radio.

"Demo squads, report!"

"First demolition, charges all set!" came a reply. "We're returning to your position."

"Second demolition, we've got company!" came the next reply. Even though he could already hear them, the roar of the squad's scatter guns came through Rekk's radio. "We've still got a few charges left to set, but we've got our hands full right now!"

"First demo, reinforce second so they can finish their job!" Rekk ordered the demolition squad that had reported their job finished.

"Copy that. En route to support." With that taken care of, Rekk turned his attention to the rest of his troops. They had already begun to pour fire onto the Metal Heads that had begun to emerge from the holes in the ground. Unfortunately, more holes opened and more Metal Heads came out of them. Rekk turned just in time to see a man-sized grunt charge at him and managed to squeeze off a quick burst from his blaster. One of the bolts hit one of the metal plates on the beast's head and diffused into nothing, but the other two hit it square in the face. The Metal Head went limp in mid-leap and crashed to the ground at Rekk's feet.

From his position up on the hill where the Freedom League troops had landed, Jerrons watched the battle unfold before him. Metal Heads were pouring out of the ground, and the soldiers were doing their best to keep them at bay while the demolition squads hurried to finish setting their bombs. As he watched, a pair of Metal Heads backed a soldier into a wall and pounced on him. A fellow soldier shifted his aim to the try to clear the two creatures from his comrade, but in doing so left himself open to attack by another Metal Head, which promptly jumped on his back and clamped its jaws around his neck. Jerrons hesitated for a second, then aimed his weapon and began firing at anything that didn't look human.

The nest was quickly turning into a scene of chaos. The two demolition squads had teamed up to finish laying their charges. The soldiers were grouping up to avoid being overwhelmed, and more Metal Heads were crawling out of the ground as fast as the troops were killing them. And to make matters worse, their numbers were slowly dwindling.

"This is second demolition," buzzed Rekk's radio. "Charges set. We're returning to the main group."

"Roger that, second demo," Rekk responded as he slammed to butt of his rifle into a Metal Head grunt that had gotten too close for comfort. He switched his radio to the all-hands circuit. "Listen up men! Demolition's coming to join us! Make sure you don't catch them in your crossfire!" Less than a minute later, he heard the roar of the demolition squads' scatter guns as the soldiers began to fight their way back to the main group. When they reached the rest of the soldiers, Rekk saw that there were only seven of the original twelve demolition troops remaining. _Shit, _he thought to himself. But there was no time to dwell on casualties at the moment. They all had to get out of there. And the Metal Heads were slowly overwhelming his troops. "Okay men, let's get the hell out of here! Back up the hill! Demo squads go first! Everyone else cover out asses!" Rekk knew that the demolition squads would have an easier time tearing through any Metal Heads that impeded their flight with their wide-firing scatter guns, and there was still the group of soldiers up on the hill itself providing cover fire. So after the demolition troops charged up the hill with guns blazing, the rest of the soldiers began to backpedal up the hill as fast as they could while still pouring fire into the mass of Metal Heads that was advancing behind them. When they reached the top of the hill, the troops up there abandoned their positions and joined the rest of their comrades in their retreat. "RUN!" Rekk shouted out loud, and everyone turned and broke into a full run away from the nest. "Demo, how long until we can blow this place?"

"Right now if we hit the dirt!" came the reply from his radio. Rekk turned to look behind him. They were still being followed by Metal Heads. But they didn't have the time to run to a safe distance before detonating the explosives.

"Do it now!" he ordered. Then over the all-hands circuit "Everybody drop!" As he stopped running to drop to the ground, Rekk managed to twist himself around so he could see the Metal Head nest. And the Metal heads still following them. As Rekk started firing at the approaching Metal Heads, he heard the _crack-crack-crack_ of more blasters going off, telling him that more soldiers had managed to turn around when they dropped to the ground.

"Fire in the hole!" someone shouted. Seconds later a flash of light appeared from the Metal Head nest. Almost instantly, the flash grew into a massive fireball and was joined by a thunderous explosion that ripped through the night and drowned out every other sound aside from itself. Private Jerrons was one of the soldiers that had managed to get turned around before dropping. He watched the fireball erupt from the nest, and then he saw and felt the effects of the shockwave that followed. As he watched, he saw the pursuing Metal Heads get knocked off their feet and flung over their heads. An instant later he was hit with a force that felt like his entire body had been slammed into a solid wall. After a minute had passed, Jerrons hears Rekk give the all-clear to stand. The young soldier stood, the explosion still ringing in his ears, and looked around. He saw the other soldiers standing from where they had dropped in the sand. He looked around for any Metal Heads. There weren't any to be seen. There weren't any living ones, at least. The creatures that had been pursuing them and been hit with the full force of the shockwave from the explosion, and they had been flung through the air like nothing. Some body parts lay strewn around the soldiers, but that was the only traces of Metal Heads anyone could find.

Sergeant Rekk took a moment to take a head count of his soldiers. He didn't like the results. Out of the 36 total men that had embarked on the mission, demolition squads included, only 20 remained now. The sergeant muttered a curse under his breath.

"Okay people, let's move to the rendezvous point," he ordered over the all-hands circuit. "Stay alert for any more Metal Heads." With that the remaining soldiers started off in the direction of where they were going to meet the dropships again for pickup. Their trek was uneventful. Along the way, they passed the ruined remains of some armored vehicles, but nobody recognized them as belonging to the Freedom League. When the group reach their pickup point, Rekk called a break while he radioed the dropships.

"Come in Task Force Airborne. This is Task Force Ground. We have completed our mission and are at the pickup point. Are you en route?"

"Negative, Ground!" came the response. "We are unable to make rendezvous! Repeat, we are unable to make rendezvous!"

"What is your current situation, Airborne?"

"We have picked up tail from KG fighters! Repeat, we have picked up tail from KG fighters! We're gonna try to lose-" the transmission cut off. Rekk swore under his breath again. The dropships had run into KG fighters, and he was sure that they had been shot down. They had launched the mission at night in hopes that they wouldn't encounter any air resistance, but it seems that General Malice still had a few patrols out and about. _And why shouldn't he?_ Rekk thought to himself. _Machines don't need sleep like living things do._ Rekk thought about what to do next. His radio only had operating frequencies for Freedom League units, so he couldn't call on any Wastelanders for help. Besides, he knew his radio didn't have long enough range to reach Spargus in the first place. After letting his men rest for a few more minutes, Rekk made up his mind.

"Okay people, listen up," the sergeant spoke up. "Our ride outta here's been shot down, so we're gonna have to hoof it to Spargus City and wait for pickup there." Several of the soldiers voiced complaints, but Rekk raised his hand to silence them. "Or we can wait here until more Metal Heads find us. Now let's move." With that, the group set out towards the Wastelander city that was their new destination. Along the way, they came across the wreckage of one of the dropships that was originally supposed to pick them up. The pilot's body was a few meters away from the crash. Part of his upper torso had been burned away by a bolt from the cannons of the KG fighter that had shot him down. After that, the soldiers had to hide several times in the rocks that dotted the landscape from a group of fighters, possibly the same ones that shot down the dropships, when they flew overhead. At one point, one of the soldiers spotted something glowing in the distance in front of the group.

"Sarge, we've got company!" the soldier announced. Rekk came up to see what the man was talking about. In the distance, he could see many small glowing specks. Specks that greatly resembled a Metal Head's skull gem. Rekk swore under his breath.

"Look alive, people!" the sergeant shouted. "We've got Metal Heads in front of us. A lot of them, from the looks of it." Several soldiers cursed out loud as they hefted their weapons and looked in the direction that Rekk was indicating. Several of them dropped to the ground and waited. Private Jerrons dropped to one knee so that he could have better control of his rifle. As the glowing specks got closer to the soldiers, the private heard something. It was a low rumbling sound, like that of an engine. And it was getting louder as the specks got closer.

"Sergeant?" the soldier spoke up.

"What is it Jerrons?" came Rekk's reply.

"I don't think those are Metal Heads, sir," Jerrons offered. "It sounds like vehicles to me, sir." Rekk pondered for a moment. Metal Heads didn't have vehicles, and the KG didn't have a land base of sufficient size to support as many vehicles as they were potentially facing. And the Freedom League didn't have any patrols in this area. That must mean...

"Wastelanders!" someone shouted. "A whole bunch of'em, too! We're saved!" The glowing specks were now close enough to the group of soldiers that they could tell that they were actually headlights, and they could see the forms of Wastelander vehicles behind them. The soldiers got up from where they had been lying in wait for Metal Heads and started moving towards the convoy in front of them. As they approached, the large all-terrain vehicles slowed to a stop and their drivers began to climb out of them. Private Jerrons watched as sergeant Rekk approached one of the Wastelanders that was climbing out of a large vehicle with a chaingun turret mounted on its top.

"You don't know what luck it is that we ran into you," the sergeant engaged in conversation with the Wastelander. "And here we were ready to engage a bunch of Metal Heads."

"Ha ha!" the Wastelander laughed. "Your General called and asked if we could pick you guys up, seeing as how your other ride got wrecked. So here we are!"

As private Jerrons was moving towards the Wastelander vehicles, he got a better look at the person is commander was talking to. The Wastelander was a big man. In the light of the vehicles' headlights, Jerrons could see that was dark-skinned, and that he had a mechanical eye. One thing that caught the soldier's eye was the armor that this person wore. It was made out of the armored plates that cover a Metal Head. Jerrons and some of the other new soldiers were directed into the large vehicle with the chaingun mounted on it. Jerrons managed to get the shotgun seat.

"Oh man, did you see all those Metal Heads back at that nest?" one of Jerrons' companions asked as he climbed into a back seat.

"I know!" the other replied. "They were _everywhere_! I didn't think we were gonna make it out of that place."

"Yeah, but we showed them. Blew'em sky high!"

"If that's all there is to killing Metal Heads, then winning this war should be a piece of cake."

"Sounds to me like this is your first time killing Metal Heads," the Wastelander with the Metal Head armor stated as he climbed into the vehicle's driver seat. "Am I right?"

"Yes sir," Jerrons responded. "First time for all of us here."

"Well then," the man chuckled as he started the vehicle's engine. "You ain't seen nothing yet. Welcome to the Wasteland, cherries!"


	2. The General

The General

Deep within the winding corridors of the Krimzon Guard subterranean base, General Malice sat alone in silent thought. All around him, the base was bustling with activity: factories were building more weapons and more soldiers, Extractors were drawing dark Eco from the reserves deep within the planet, which the Eco Replicators would in turn use to power the entire base and all its functions, and machines were moving busily about performing their assigned duties. But the General's room was silent, save for the low hum of the holographic map displayed before the machine. The map displayed the vast Wasteland and much of its surroundings, including all of Haven City as well as many of the islands in the ocean that was located above part of the KG base. Due to the map's sheer size, the room it was in was appropriately large enough to house it. It was here that The General would summon his commanders to draw up battle plans for their war against all living things.

General Malice sat and let thoughts run through his circuits. For the most part, he thought about the war. The KG didn't yet have an established foothold in the Wasteland like the Freedom League and Metal Head forces did, but that meant little to the General. The KG's multiple positions on the islands would suffice until he possessed enough resources to move onto the mainland. Besides, the KG had total dominance of the airspace over the Wasteland. Neither the humans nor the Metal Heads had been able to successfully launch enough aerial resistance and keep it airborne long enough to pose a major threat to the General's plans since the war had started. Just a few days ago, one of the late night patrols had encountered and shot down a trio of Freedom League dropships that were quite a ways away from the main Freedom League base. The transports were empty, but none of the patrols that night had succeeded in locating their cargo.

Briefly, General Malice wondered if the raiding party that he had ordered to be assembled was ready to begin its mission. He quickly dismissed the though, though: the commander that was to lead the raid would be ready to go whenever the General gave the order. Malice's thoughts shifted to what he hoped to achieve through this raid. The goal sounded simple enough: get into Haven City and capture the Eco user. Simple as it sounded, this task would most likely prove difficult to achieve. For on thing, Haven City was surrounded by a powerful shield wall that the General's forces had not found a way to penetrate yet. To make matters more complicated, the city was very well defended, and would require a very large force to attack head-on and come out victorious. So the raiding party had to find a different means of getting into the city. They were going to go in underground using one of the KG's subterranean troop transports. Once inside the city's shield walls, the transport would surface in an inconspicuous location and unload its troops: a full platoon of Deathbots capable of rendering themselves effectively invisible to the naked eye. These soldiers would then seek out their target, causing as much disorder within the city as they saw fit in order to hopefully draw him out. Should they succeed, the raiding party would return to the KG base with their captive so that the light Eco could be drawn out of him. Then the General could move on with his grander plans...

General Malice interrupted his train of thought and summoned the commander who was to lead the raid via the base's communications network. Two minutes later, a beep from his console signaled that something had requested entry to the room. The General pressed a button on his console and the door on the far side of the room slid open. To the unaided eye, it would have appeared that nothing was standing in the doorway, but the General's advanced sensors and systems allowed him to clearly see what was there. As soon as the cloaked Deathbot stepped through the door, it slid shut just as it had opened. Malice waited for the machine to stop at the far side of the holo-map.

"Commander," the General started in a voice that only the two of them could hear. "Are your forces prepared for your mission?"

"Affirmative, General," the other machine replied. "We embark on your command." It was silent for a full minute.

"Very well," Malice stated. "Operation Unseen Hunters is now underway." With that, the invisible commander gave a quick salute, turned, and left the room.


	3. Titan

Titan

As the desert sands swirled furiously outside, the Titan slept deep within its gaping cave. Gradually, the beast awakened, disturbed by its growling stomach wanting to be fed. Stretching its limbs, the giant Metal Head turned it gaze to the mouth of its cave. The sandstorm that had been ravaging the Wasteland for the past several days had decreased in strength from earlier that day. That meant the Titan could go out and hunt for food. It rose and started to the cave entrance. When it got outside the cave, the beast took a moment to shake off the last remnants of its sleep. It stood on its hind legs, stretched its forearms wide, and let out a deep guttural roar that would be heard at least a kilometer away. Standing several stories tall while erect, the beast took a moment to survey its surroundings. The sandstorm was still fairly strong, but a lull was coming on. The strength of the storm was no concern to the Titan; its armor plates and hide were more than thick enough to withstand the most brutal sandstorm that the Wasteland had to offer. The strength of the storm _would_, however, determine if there was prey to be caught. Humans, those lizards, and even smaller Metal Heads would be torn apart in a storm as strong as the one that had been going on over the past several days. But since the storm was breaking, food would be out.

The Titan decided to head in the direction of the ruined city and see what it could find there. It would probably find some lizards. They liked to nest in the crumbling buildings and hunt smaller rodents that lived there. There might be some humans out and about, too. The sandstorms in the Wasteland tended to uncover ancient Precursor artifacts from beneath the sands, and the humans were interested in collecting these trinkets for some reason. It didn't matter to the Titan why the humans wanted the artifacts, though. They tasted good, and that was all that mattered. Besides, the Metal Heads were still largely at war with the humans, so getting rid of any that it found was part of the Titan's job. But there were also those machines now. The machines that attacked everything regardless of whether it was human or Metal Head. The Titan didn't understand why the machines acted so; as far as it knew, the Metal Heads had never done anything to these machines to bring their wrath upon them... They tasted good, though in a different way than the humans did.

As the sands continued to calm themselves, the Titan could see the old city in the distance. The storm had died down enough now that the beast was sure there would be lizards out and about. The scent of lizard soon confirmed the Titan's belief. It began to approach the ruins as stealthily as a creature of its size could...

* * *

The leaper lizard awoke with a start to a sudden sound from outside. It jerked its head from side to side to see if any other members of its pack might have also been awakened by the sudden noise, but all the other lizards that were hiding in the shelter of the old structure were still asleep. The lizard dismissed the sound as something getting blown over by the winds outside. It was about to settle down to go back to sleep when a massive claw suddenly burst through the ceiling and slammed into the several of the sleeping reptiles. The first lizard let out a shriek of both surprise and alarm, and any sleeping lizards that hadn't been crushed awoke with a panicked shriek. As the claw began to retract through the roof, the surviving lizards began to make for the hole in the wall that served as the entrance to their shelter. As the first lizard scrambled into the old street, it paused and looked up to see what had so suddenly disturbed its peaceful slumber. It found itself staring at a gaping tooth-filled maw that was rapidly descending upon it...

* * *

As the Titan picked its head up from the ground with the lizard in its mouth, more of the small creatures swarmed out of the structure, shrieking cries of fear and warning as they went. Dropping its prey from its maw, the beast took note of the situation. It had already killed three of the leapers; two in the structure and the one it had just dropped. It decided it would stash any lizards it caught in the structure it had just invaded, then come back and collect them when it had caught enough to make a decent meal.

Within a few minutes of the Titan's arrival in the old city, the group of lizards it had disturbed had spread throughout the ruined buildings and alerted other groups of lizards of its presence. Now leaper lizards were scampering all around the ruins as the giant Metal Head chased them down and caught them, slowly increasing its collection of dead or dying food. Much to the Titan's dismay, the sandstorm was beginning to gain strength again. That meant the lizards would start taking refuge in the buildings from the storm again, and wouldn't be out in the streets to be caught. Oh well. There were still some of the reptiles fleeing from the Titan in the open, so it decided to chase them down before returning to collect its kills.

* * *

Sarah Everheart glanced at the screen on her scanner. It showed the locations of several Precursor artifacts in the vicinity of its scan range. Sarah sighed. She would have liked to be able to retrieve all of the artifacts, but the storm that had uncovered them was picking back up, and the team of Wastelanders Sarah was out with would have to head back to Spargus City soon in order to avoid being caught in it. _Well,_ she thought to herself, _at least I should be able to get one of them._ She began to head in the direction of the closest artifact.

"Everheart!" a voice shouted from behind her. "Where are you going?" Sarah turned to see her partner, an older Wastelander named Gage Zeykrost, walking toward her. "This storm's getting worse again! We've got to head back to Spargus!"

"I know!" Sarah shouted back, but only because the wind was picking up and made it hard to hear clearly. "Scanner shows another artifact close by, though! I'm gonna pick it up before we head back!"

"Fine," Gage replied. He was closer now, so he didn't have to shout to be heard over the wind. "Just hurry it up. We don't have a lot of time left." Sarah nodded and looked back at her scanner. She started off in the direction of the nearest artifact, near the edge of the old city ruins. Gage followed her, continually sweeping the landscape for any sign of threats.

"Found it!" Sarah announced after a few minutes. Sure enough, there was the artifact, sticking out of the sand where the scanner said it would be. She quickly set to work uncovering the rest of it before the desert could claim it again. It was a strange device, tubular in shape with several knob-like things sticking out of it on one end. "Okay, let's go!" she called out to Gage. Suddenly, a shriek from behind her drew her attention. Sarah immediately recognized the sound as that of a leaper lizard, but she turned around anyways.

"Just some lizards!" Gage shouted over the wind. Sure enough, there was a group of wild lizards running along the side of one of the old buildings, seeking shelter from the growing storm. Sarah was about to turn around to head back to her vehicle when something suddenly shot down the side of the building and slammed into the group of fleeing lizards. The sudden appearance of the object startled Sarah so much that she dropped the artifact she had just dug out of the sand. As she focused on the object, Sarah could make out what she thought were armored plates over a dark skin. _Uh-oh..._ Sarah thought as she shifted her gaze up to where the object had come from...

"By the Precursors..." Sarah Everheart found herself staring at the biggest Metal Head that she had ever seen. The beast before her stood several stories tall; taller than any of the old buildings surrounding it. Aside from its size, there was something else about it that caught Sarah's attention: the Skull Gem that was set in its head was blood red. Normally, Metal Heads had a green Skull Gem. The monster's eyes were an identical red, and they pierced through the swirling sands in a way that Sarah thought the Metal Head was staring directly at _her_. As Sarah watched, the monster drew its arm up from the ground, dropping the corpses of several of the lizards it had just ambushed, and placed its gigantic claw on the roof of a nearby building. Then the beast threw its head back and let out a long, deep, guttural roar that sent chills up and down Sarah's spine and shook her to the bone. Standing there paralyzed with fear, Sarah hardly noticed that Gage had started speaking into his radio to the rest of their team.

"Everheart! Don't lose that artifact!" Gage shouted. Sarah snapped out of her shock and remembered that she had dropped the ancient device she had dug up. She quickly scooped it up again, then turned and ran back to where her team had left their vehicles. Gage followed close behind. They were the last two of their team to get into their vehicles. Sarah jumped into the driver seat of her vehicle, tossed the artifact she was carrying to the Wastelander sitting behind her, pulled her goggles over her eyes, hit the gas, and sped away in the direction of Spargus. She hoped that the giant Metal Head behind the group hadn't noticed their presence...

* * *

The Titan let out a howl of victory. It had just killed three leaper lizards with its last strike, and now it had collected enough food to take back to its lair. The beast paused momentarily as it detected a new scent in the air. Was that...? Yes, it was. Humans. Eagerly, the Titan looked around for the source of this new scent. There! Two of them, moving away from the Titan. But they were retreating, and there were most likely more of them where these two were going. A Metal Head as large as the Titan could easily take on a small group of humans, but it already had enough lizards to make a meal, so it decided to ignore the humans as it collected its prey.

Back at the structure where the Titan had first began its hunt, the beast gathered up the corpses of all the leaper lizards it had killed or badly wounded. It had more than a dozen in total; more than enough to make a meal. The beast gathered up the bodies in its giant claws and set off back through the desert to its cave.

* * *

Upon returning to its cave, the Titan found a messenger from the Nest waiting for it. The messenger had brought news of what was happening with the Metal Head hordes throughout the Wasteland. Aside from news that the humans had destroyed a fledgling nest area a week ago, nothing was of great interest to the Titan. When the messenger had divulged all of the information it had, it burrowed into the sand to go deliver its news elsewhere.

After the Titan finished consuming the lizards it had caught, it went to the back of its cave, lay down, and slowly drifted off into sleep.


End file.
